Midnight Ramble

Black characters have appeared in Hollywood films for as long as motion pictures have been produced. In the early years the hiring of black performers was rare. When feature roles requiring a black player came along, the film’s producers habitually hired white actors and let him, or her portray the character in “Blackface”.

Midnight Ramble concerns Black Hollywood from the period just after World War I through the 1940s. It considers everything from the low budget, independent Race movies of Oscar Micheaux to major studio productions. It’s a tribute to a very misunderstood, and mysterious film genre that lasted for over forty years.

This section of The Palace is dedicated to those actors and filmmakers of Race movies, and Black Hollywood that flourished during the first half of the twentieth century.

Midnight Ramble